1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system which includes a distribution server capable of distributing content items such as sound data (e.g., data of incoming call melodies), a client terminal (e.g., a personal computer) capable of communicating with the distribution server, and a portable terminal (e.g., a cellular phone) capable of communicating with the distribution server, and in which the distribution server distributes the content items to the client terminal or the portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
With recent development of communication techniques, portable terminals such as cellular phones and mobile computers have come into wide use. Meanwhile, the number of content distribution services which enable users to obtain content items to be used on their portable terminals has increased. Among the content distribution services, a service which enables a cellular phone, which is one type of portable terminal, to obtain data of an incoming call melody, which is one type of content item, is called an “incoming-call-melody providing service.” The incoming-call-melody providing service enables a user of a cellular phone to select a desired music data item from a large number of music data items provided in the distribution server and to request distribution of the selected music data item. In response to the request, the distribution server distributes to the cellular phone the music data item selected by the user.
However, under the above-described conventional technique, all of various operations for obtaining an incoming call melody must be performed on a cellular phone. However, such operations are not easy to perform on cellular phones having a reduced size. Therefore, completing necessary operations requires a prolonged period of time. In addition, in the case in which a user decides whether to buy a music data item after a trial listen of the music (trial of a content item), the time during which his/her cellular phone is connected to a distribution server tends to increase. Moreover, due to relatively high communication cost of such a cellular phone, among other causes, a relatively high usage fee is charged to a user.